George Zarnecki

George Jerzy Zarnecki, CBE, FBA, FSA (12 September 1915 – 8 September 2008) was a Polish Professor of Art history. He was a scholar of Medieval art and English Romanesque sculpture, an area of study where he did pioneering research.

Zarnecki was born in Stara Osota, then in Russia, but now part of the Ukraine. His parents were Polish speaking, his father was a Polish convert from Judaism and his mother was Russian Catholic.
Zarnecki attended Jagiellonian University in Kraków, Poland, he attained his MA in 1938 and, from 1936 to 1939, was a junior assistant at the University's Institute of Art History.

At the outbreak of war with Nazi Germany, Zarnecki, his sister and parents headed for Bucharest. He made his way to France via Italy, joined a Polish regiment and fought in Alsace, France. He was captured in 1940 and escaped twice, recaptured both times he spent two years as a Prisoner of War. He narrowly avoided being sent to a concentration camp as a suspected Jew. The fact he was not circumcised and was wearing a crucifix his mother had given him, saved him from that fate. Using forged documents Zarnecki escaped to Vichy France and thence into Franco's Spain where his was interned for a year before being allowed to go to England. Zarnecki escaped Spain and made his way to England in 1943. He joined the Free Polish Forces, attaining the rank of Lance Corporal. He spent time compiling an index of the cultural losses that Poland was suffering as a result of the German invasion. Zarnecki was later awarded the French Croix de guerre and the Polish Cross of Valor (two bars) for his military service.

...
Wikipedia